


The Kiss

by TWDObsessive



Series: Finally [2]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Love Confessions, M/M, POV First Person, POV Rick Grimes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-15
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-09-08 16:43:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8852512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TWDObsessive/pseuds/TWDObsessive
Summary: Rick hugged Daryl as they were reunited at Hilltop but what happens later that day?  Does Rick take this opportunity to tell Daryl everythang?





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stylepoints](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stylepoints/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Hug reloaded](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8841481) by [legolastariel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/legolastariel/pseuds/legolastariel). 



> Beta'd by Stylepoints and gifted to Stylpoints! Sorry you had to beta your own gift fic, but hey, at least it's in even better shape now! :-D Thanks for everything you do to help with my stuff and thangs! 
> 
> This fic was inspired by Legolastarial's fic, The Hug reloaded. (which was inspired by my fic, The Hug) In Legolastarial's fic, she had Rick whisper to Daryl that he loved him during the famous canon Rickyl hug. That inspired me to pretend that did indeed happen in canon and my muse took it from there.

“I meant it,” I said to him out of nowhere as we walked together in our comfortable silence towards the Hilltop well. He looked over at me asking with just the crinkle of his brow what I was talking about. “Earlier today...when I first saw you,” I clarified, “I meant what I whispered. I love you.”

We stopped at the hand pump and he gave me that awkward nod of his as he worked the handle to draw out fresh water to fill the bucket he’d been carrying. “Yeah, I know,” he said quietly.

I put my thumbs in my belt loops and took a deep breath. “No, you don't, Daryl,” I said firmly, leaning down so I could tilt my head to meet his gaze.

He looked at me with those narrow eyes- one eye that seemed to regard me with caution and the other that looked desperate to take from me whatever I was willing to give.

“I was lost without you in Alexandria. I fell...again... and it was worse than Lori, worse than Jessie, worse than Shane. It was _you_. And I didn't know how to… _be_...without you by my side. I could barely breath.”

“‘M here now,” he said with a shrug, moving his full bucket out of the way. As I picked mine up and placed it under the spout, he leaned against the wall of the building waiting for me.. “Love you, too,” he muttered. “You know that. Family. Brothers.”

I shook my head. “No. More than that. Daryl, if we’re going to war, I don't want to leave things unsaid and undone. I can't.”

“Got a lot to do, Rick,” he started to say, looking down at the water he’d gathered as if it were important enough to put out a forest fire, not just to fill some pots for dinner. He was clearly unfamiliar with how to respond to this kind of affection and it made me love him all the more. He picked up his filled bucket and kept his eyes averted. “And Mags is gonna be pissed if we don't get this water back for cookin’,” he continued. “She's liable to chew her own arm off if she don’t eat soon.”

“I'm _IN_ love with you,” I emphasized rooting him in his spot with my gaze.

He just looked at me, blinking, a look on his face like such a thing was not possible. “I killed Glenn,” he whispered like it was sin itself and tears swelled in his eyes as he waited for me to understand why it's impossible to love him.

“No,” I said, rushing to embrace him again, letting his head fall against my shoulder like it did earlier, the bucket he was holding dropping to the ground with a thud and a slosh. I held him close again gripping him tight, my hand cupped to his neck and the other splayed protectively over his broad shoulders. “No. Don't carry that, Daryl. It's not on you.”

I felt him shaking his head as he pushed away from me. “He wouldn't be dead if it weren't for what I done-”

“Daryl!” I said as he tried to find a way to walk around me to go back to the kitchen. “I led us out there to begin with. Why not blame me? Negan shot Olivia after Rosita tried to kill him. You think she’s to blame for who found the end of his bullet? It's no one's fault except Negan’s.”

He looked at me, trying to will back his tears. “I'm sorry,” he whispered like he needed my forgiveness even though what he really needed was to forgive himself.

“Daryl,” I whispered again. “There's nothing to be sorry for. We’re back together now and we’ll stand up and fight. For Glenn. For Abraham. For each other.”

“I ain' much to love, Rick,” he said softly. “Maybe you just missed havin’ me around and you’re confusin’ it with-”

“You've trusted every decision I've made all this time,” I interrupted. “Trust me now when I tell you what you mean to me.”

He looked down, dipped his head in shame and submission the way he often does and I took his head in my hands giving him time to pull away if he didn't want what was coming.

I met his eyes again, talking close the way lovers are wont to do, the way Maggie and Glenn used to. “Always gonna give you what you want,” he whispered.

“This guilt you’re hellbent on owning, Daryl? It will kill you. You gotta let it go and focus on what’s right here in front of you,” I said softly. “You've already shown that you'd die for me. Will you live for me?”

After a few hesitant seconds that dragged on like aimless snails crossing a sidewalk on a hot summer day, he gave that slight nod, his way of saying yes and it was more concrete than truth itself.

I held his face in my hands and leaned forward til my lips were only a breath away from his. I waited. I didn't want to be aggressive with him in any way shape or form, not after all he's been through...before the end of the world and after.

He smelled like evergreens and the apple pie he shared with me earlier. I waited. And he slowly leaned his forehead in so it would touch mine in an unspoken plea for me to be the one to initiate the kiss that was damn well going to finally happen. And I'll give Daryl anything he wants, so I press my lips to his. 

He gasps and I feel him shudder under my fingers as I start to pluck soft kisses against his dry, chapped lips. He tastes of cinnamon, sorrow and the salt from the tears that he’s fought so hard against and lost the battle to over and over again throughout the afternoon.

When his arms slipped around me and he started to join in the movement of lips and tongues, I knew that he understood... finally...what he meant to me.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm just saying... maybe someone like... I dunno maybe Legolastarial, might get inspired to write Daryl's POV of this. (Ha- tricked you! _**I**_ wrote **Rick's** POV this time!) Or maybe be inspired to write their second kiss or some such!


End file.
